Snowball effect
by WhisefoohL
Summary: Miles messes up, and his day seems to get worse from there. Someone is out to get him for not saving his wife, and Miles can't seem to get over their first encounter. meva, nathen. please review! third chapter on the way.
1. Chapter 1

He had not meant for it to escalate into this. One slip-up, and Kate was jumping down his throat. It may have been an mistake in procedure, but he did manage to give a little girl comfort, so she could be a little less traumatized. It was just a teddy-bear. What everyone seemed to forget is that part of the job was to help keep the patients sane, as well as alive. But what did it matter now?

"Miles, were you the last person to use the coffee maker?"

"Yeah, why?" 'What did I do this time' he thought to himself, not remembering doing any thing wrong.

You didn't clean it out. It's a mess!" Connor continued.

"Sorry, I'll clean it up." He offered. "I need to talk to you, if you have the time for me."

"I can't talk right now. I have to go test the teddy-bear for any evidence of the disease." Why did he have to bring that up?

"Oh. Hey, I think I'm going to go home for a while. Okay?"

"Yeah, just be back before 5." Miles got up and walked past Stephen without another word. He walked out the front doors thinking of nothing but his couch, a bag of chips, and the T.V. He hailed a cab, and got in, mumbling his address to the driver, who was looking through the rear view mirror at him.

"What happened to you? Just get dumped or something? You look pale." She asked, quirking an eye brow.

"No, I just have a headache, that's all." Miles said quietly. The driver understood that it wasn't what he wanted to talk about. She didn't say anything until they pulled up in front of his apartment.

"Here we are. Hope you feel better."

"Thanks," he answered, handing her the money. He got to his door, unlocked it, and made a bee line for the couch.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So you all know, I already have like 20 pages written of this fic, but I hate typing, so it may take a bit to get it all on here. Sry for any future waits.

When Miles had just settled in on the couch, the door bell rang. With a sigh, he got up. "Who is it?" he called.

"I have a package. Sorry about the wait, there was an accident and the roads are all backed up."

"It's unlocked." Miles didn't remember ordering anything, but he wasn't complaining.

A man stepped in, not wearing a uniform of any kind, and not carrying a package. Instead, he was holding a metal pipe.

"Dr. McCabe, if you could just sign here," the man said. Before Miles could do anything, the man lunged at him, bringing him to the ground. "Remember me?

Racking his brain, and gripping the hand that the man was trying to punch him with. "You're wife died in my care. She was sick," Miles said, painfully giving up with the grip on the man's arm.

"Good job. That will win you a quick death. Stand up."

As Miles went to stand up, the man put into use the metal pipe, right across the side of Miles' face. "Okay, I'm sorry your wife died, but I did everything that I could do to save her!"

"Sure you did. I didn't see you giving her mouth to mouth, you lazy brat!" the man said, bringing the pipe down on Miles' hand that was now inches away from the cordless phone.

"She didn't die because she wasn't breathing, she died because her heart simply stopped beating, and wouldn't start again. I give you my word that I did all I could possibly do to get her back. You have to know that." Miles said, attempting to calm his attacker down.

"I don't care! All I care about right now is that you get what you deserve." He swung hard, hitting the side of Miles' head with force enough to knock him flat against the T.V. cabinet. The buzzer went off again, and Stephen's voice penetrated the wood.

"I'm coming in, it's unlocked," Stephen said, after a few seconds. The man with the pipe jumped up and ran for the window. He climbed out onto the fire escape. He was out of sight by the time Stephen opened the door.

"Miles! What happened?" he asked, running over to where his friend lay.

"A man… came in and… and … he had a metal pipe," he said through clenched teeth and labored breathing.

"We'll get you to the hospital. My car's parked outside. Can you walk?" Stephen asked.

"Yeah," Miles said, pushing himself up onto his elbows. Stephen put Miles' arm over his shoulder trying to tune out Miles' moaning. He was obviously in a lot of pain. Slowly, they made their way to the car. Miles' neighbors were standing outside their apartments trying to see what all the noise had been. When they saw, they ran inside, most likely to spread news of the event to all of their friends.

Once at the car, Stephen put Miles in the back seat. Immediately, Miles started to panic. "I'm right here kid. It's gonna be alright," he said, looking around for an idea. He needed someone to drive to the hospital. "Hey! You in the red! Can you drive to the hospital? I need to stay with my friend."

"Sure. So that means it go as fast as safety allows?" the man asked, obviously eager for the chance to drive fast with out the risk of being arrested. He ran over and grabbed the keys off the hood of the car. Before Stephen even had a chance to buckle up, they were going 90 in a 50 mph zone.

"Miles, can you look at me for a minute?" Stephen asked, looking down at his quivering friend. The thing he couldn't figure out was why he was so out of it, and why he wouldn't stop shaking. It was almost as if he had lost a lot of blood, but most of his wounds looked superficial. Miles finally opened his eyes, and then tried to pull away. "Hey, it's okay, do you recognize me?"

"No, no, no, no! It hurts! Make it stop." Miles was violently shaking now, eyes squeezed tight shut.

"I know kid, we're almost there. Hang on. Miles?" he seemed to zone out, and was now staring at the roof of the car. "Hey, I need you to look me straight in the eyes."

Miles finally looked at him, "Stephen?" he breathed. He started to squirm, trying to sit up.

"You need to hold still. Squirming will cause more damage than there already is." Stephen said. At this, Miles obediently held still.

"We're almost there," said the man in red.

"Eva…call Eva." Miles said. It looked as if the pain was getting worse every minute that passed.


End file.
